After years of continuous growth in the number of Australians choosing GreenPower electricity plans, the green tide has turned as 138,000 households ditched their GreenPower plan over the last 12 months.

The National GreenPower Accreditation Program Status Report issued at the weekend, shows that as at June 30, 802,619 households nationally had subscribed to a GreenPower plan, representing a decrease of 15 per cent over the past 12 months.

According to Shaun Johnson, founder of energy comparison site Switchwise.com.au, this translated into a massive 33 per cent or 122,000 mega watt hour (MWh) reduction in the amount of renewable electricity purchased by Australian households in the June quarter.

The failure in December 2009 of specialist GreenPower retailer Jackgreen, which had approximately 76,000 customers, accounted for half the total drop in GreenPower customers.

It appears that the vast majority of Jackgreen customers decided not to take up GreenPower plans with their new electricity suppliers.

Furthermore, consumers appear to be less willing to pay a premium for GreenPower after seeing their power bills rise by over 20 per cent over the last 2 years. Switchwise.com.au data shows that only 3 per cent of its customers choose a GreenPower plan when switching power companies.

New South Wales and Victoria experienced the biggest drops in green households of 24 per cent and 20 per cent respectively whilst the ACT managed to buck the trend by increasing the number of households on GreenPower by 20 per cent.

Queensland is Australia's greenest electricity state with 13 per cent of households selecting a GreenPower plan.

Victoria has the greatest number of GreenPower users with 278,706 households but trails Queensland on a per capita basis. NSW is the worst performer in the country with only 7 per cent of households going green.

Australia's largest energy retailer, Origin Energy, continues its success in growing GreenPower customers with an increase of 7.6 per cent over the year. Origin Energy now represents almost half of the total Australian GreenPower market.

TRUenergy and Simply Energy lost the most - shedding 48,467 and 34,609 GreenPower customers respectively.

Country Energy and Energy Australia lost almost 10,000 customers each.

With households abandoning GreenPower the Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target - 20 per cent of our energy generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2020 - becomes an even bigger stretch target.

Mr Johnson said it was worrying to see large numbers of Australians abandoning green electricity despite the across the board price rises and the current economic environment.

"Thanks to competition, there are some great entry-level GreenPower deals available at prices similar to what many consumers currently pay for their coal-powered electricity."

But he warned consumers needed to be careful when choosing a GreenPower plan as the premiums charged could vary significantly.

"Research conducted by switchwise.com.au indicates an average household could pay up to $245 more each year for a 100 per cent GreenPower plan depending on which supplier they choose. It is imperative consumers compare prices before deciding to switch to green electricity."